The Ultimate Ultrabooks

See our comparative look at the slimmest, sleekest new laptops.

Sleek, curved designs. An arresting use of midnight-black glass. Shock-absorbent magnesium alloy. These are the premium features that define the new breed of slim Ultrabooks—notebooks and laptops with Intel processors, solid-state drives (SSD) instead of hard drives, minimal size and weight, and extra-long battery life. Ultrabooks, a category of computer inspired by the sliver-thin MacBook Air, were the unexpected stars at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Here, we highlight seven of the best new releases on the market.

Details on Vizio's 15-inch Thin + Light have been scarce, but the website claims we'll see it sometime in spring 2012. Here's what we know from early reports: The notebook's body and screen enclosure are crafted from a single piece of aluminum (a move begun by Apple), features an SD-card slot, and can hit a 1920 x 1080 resolution (14-inch version supports 1600 x 900). Most notable is Vizio's coy mention of an "as yet unavailable" CPU, which likely means the notebook will employ Intel's next-generation "Ivy Bridge" processors—potentially making the Vizio Thin + Light the fastest performer of the bunch by far.